


The Argument

by ohelrond



Series: Until the Breaking of the World [6]
Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Angst, Carlisle is actually problematic once you look more deeply at his character, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Rosalie is a cow but she's an honest cow, anyway i love carlisle/esme and would die for them, carlesme, family bonding time turns nasty, like i love him genuinely but like. damn boy u got some issues?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:00:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27902626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohelrond/pseuds/ohelrond
Summary: The Cullens decide, a week after Edward and Bella's return from Isle Esme (and a week before Jacob's POV starts), what to do about the pregnancy. For a while, Carlisle agreed with Edward to terminate the pregnancy against Bella's will, but after Esme makes it clear that will not fly, he changes his mind.Canon compliant. Carlisle/Esme relationship focus.Significant mentions of pregnancy and abortion.
Relationships: Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale, Carlisle Cullen/Esme Cullen, Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale
Series: Until the Breaking of the World [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1959850
Comments: 7
Kudos: 27





	The Argument

**Author's Note:**

> Literally the title for this in my Drive is 'The Girls are Fightingggg!!!'. As it's mentioned in canon a number of times, Carlisle and Esme don't fight, and Edward says that Carlisle eventually refused to abort against Bella's wishes not because he came to his senses (cause he's a problematic KING) but because he 'hates' to disagree with Esme. Carlisle might be the head of the family but Esme is the neck; she can turn the head whatever way she WANTS and I LOVE that for her. 
> 
> This may come across as pro-life but NO this is pro-choice. I love my pro-abortion kings Edward and Carlisle but they was wildin. Carlisle's lifelong philosophy seems to be "pro-choice but only MY choice" which is iconic but. Not it for this one. 
> 
> Not proof read, first drafts get published ONLY! I love Esme/Carlisle and just wanted to write some angst.

It had been a week since they got back from their honeymoon and the situation was coming to a head. Bella was in a lot of pain, but she denied it, stubbornly refusing anyone’s assistance but Rosalie’s. The pair had bonded since their return, and Rosalie barely left her side. Alice could barely manage to be in the same room as her and Jasper was always at her side. Carlisle and Edward spent most of their time with her or hidden away in Carlisle’s study. Edward and Emmett had helped him bring hospital equipment out of storage and Rosalie only left Bella to help Emmett bring it back up to a practical medical grade. 

Esme felt isolated. She wanted a chance to speak with her new daughter alone, but in a house this full it was impossible. Yet she was the only one who understood even in the slightest what Bella was going through; no one else had felt life grow inside of them. 

It was easier to throw herself into the work on the cottage. Since the engagement had been announced Esme had worked hard on bringing the stone cottage to a livable condition, and even longer to make it a home. At least she knew what to do with the leftover room there - a nursery, in the hope that it might all work out. That was what she had always stood by, that fate had a way, that it would all work out in the end. She painted the walls cream and yellow, and filled it with soft lights and fluffy pillows and warm blankets. When she had been human, her cousin had knitted her a huge blanket that was supposed to cloak Esme and her baby in the cold Wisconsin nights, but her baby had died and so had she. She kept the blanket for years, but eventually too many holes appeared, it was too scratchy, it wasn’t comfortable anymore. A small piece of it was cut and framed and her baby’s birthday and death day was marked but it was hidden away under her bed. 

She didn’t knit. But it would have been nice to have something to pass onto the baby, if it all worked out in the end. 

Esme sat with her legs crossed in the middle of the room and looked around. It was nicely furnished, warm and cosy, the perfect little nursery. How many hearts would break if it could never be used. Perhaps, if things went wrong, they could just burn down the house. The stone would not collapse, but everything else could be turned to ash. 

Her phone buzzed. A message from Carlisle. They hadn’t spoken properly in days.  _ Please come home. We are in the dining room.  _

She closed her eyes, dread washing over her, and replied with a simple word.  _ Yes. _

It was raining again. Esme locked the front door of the cottage behind her and took her time up the stone path, letting her fingers run over the bushes and flowers in the front garden. In another life, she would have loved a home like this. It was so easy to imagine her golden-haired, natural and mortal children playing in the yard, their eyes blue like their father’s, their laughter loud and echoing in the forest. Carlisle had blue eyes before the change. She would have given him loving and kind children. Sighing, she wiped the rain from her cheeks, longing for the catharsis of tears. 

Only a few minutes passed and she had leaped the span of the river and was climbing the porch steps of their old white house. The front door was unlocked and she passed by Edward’s piano and into the dining room. The family was already assembled. Only Emmett looked at her when she walked in. He smiled sympathetically at her. At the head of the table sat Carlisle and Edward was on his right. Bella was on his left, opposite her husband, and Rose was on her other side watching Edward with a fierce stare. Emmett sat beside Rosalie but he looked uncomfortable. On Edward’s other side sat Alice, Jasper next to her. Two sides of three, with Carlisle at the head. It left Esme the eighth chair at the bottom of the dark dining table and she took it, directly facing Carlisle. He couldn’t look at her. There was too much unspoken between them. 

“Now, we’re all here,” Carlisle began. “Thank you. Bella, you wanted to speak with all of us. You have the floor.” 

Bella looked at him incredulously, angrily, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Her hand went to her swelling stomach and both Rosalie and Edward watched her with tense faces. “Yes, I did want to speak with all of you. And I think you all know why.” 

“Bella-”

She held a hand up to silence Edward. “No, I’m not finished. I’m tired of this! I’m tired of fighting you! All of you! Only Rose has been on my side since we got back and I’m-! I’m tired! I want you all to say how you feel so that we can just get it over with. Enough with the looks and the whispers, just say it!”

Esme clasped her hands in her lap and looked down. 

Rosalie spoke first. “I agree with Bella. This is her decision and I will do whatever it takes to protect her and the baby.” 

“We can’t be sure that’s what it is,” Jasper replied sharply. 

“What do you expect it is, a leprechaun?” Rosalie hissed. Emmett murmured a soothing word to her and she leaned back in her chair. Esme glanced up at Bella. By God, she looked exhausted. All of this fighting wasn’t good for her. 

“It could be anything,” came Jasper’s cold reply. “Edward can’t hear it, Alice can’t see it, and I can’t feel it. We don’t know if it’s even alive.” 

“He’s alive!” Bella interrupted angrily. “There’s a life inside me, I know there is!” 

Edward’s voice was tight. “It’s draining you, Bella. It’s a parasite, stealing your life for its own! We can’t let it go on like this!” 

Her tone was softer when her attention was on her husband. She reached a bony hand across the table but he didn’t take it. “I know you’re scared, but it’ll be alright. It’s our baby, and I love him.” 

Edward turned his face away, agonised. He could see what they all could, all of them but Bella. This might kill her. She was haggard. “Carlisle?” 

All eyes were on him now. In a family of so many strong personalities and wills, it still fell to him to guide them and lead them, and his word was always final. It was a burden he carried with compassion and kindness and an open heart, and he rarely used his authority to overpower the decisions of others. But still, in times of crisis, he did. He shared a look with Edward before speaking. “Bella, our family has never been happier than with you in it. You have completed us. We all love you deeply. And it is because of this love that we are so divided now. Rosalie believes in your choice to carry this life - whatever it may be - and let the fates decide, and Emmett stands by her side. But Alice and Jasper, Edward and myself, are deeply concerned.” 

Esme noticed the omission of her name. It was to be understood. She had barely said a word, too frightened to cast her lot just yet. The fighting was bad for Bella. 

Atop the table, Carlisle took a gentle hold of Bella’s fragile hand. Her veins and bones were sharp under the skin. “I can’t see what is going on. The amniotic sac is too thick for needles to pass through, and we are going into this virtually blind. If we let this pregnancy continue, we risk it killing you.” 

Edward moaned quietly and buried his face into his hands. Alice turned her face away in pain. Jasper, no doubt overwhelmed by the grief and uncertainty in the room, looked tortured. 

“And so you’ll trade the baby’s life for Bella’s?” Rosalie snapped. “Bella’s made her choice. Or do you resent that she is the one making the choice and not you?” 

“Rose, it’s alright,” Bella said quietly, and even she was shocked. There had always been some tension between Carlisle and Rosalie, and it hurt him every time she said that he had stolen her choice of immortality from her, but it was a slap in the face for her to say it like this in front of everyone. 

“No, it’s not! He gets to play God and decide who lives and who dies, and yet when you’re the one who wants to make that choice for yourself, he decides he can’t allow that?” Rosalie scoffed and folded her arms. 

“Well who said that it’ll come to that?” Bella asked, looking between father and daughter. “It doesn’t have to! I don’t think the baby will kill me, Carlisle, I really don’t.” 

“That’s not a risk we are willing to take,” he replied softly. Rosalie’s words had wounded him, perhaps because there was a ring of truth to them that made them all uncomfortable. “Your life is paramount. We can’t leave it up to chance.” 

“What are you saying?” Rosalie asked, her voice low and her lips pulled back over her teeth. 

Edward dragged his nails down his face to look at his sister, cold and empty. “We’re saying that Carlisle will tear that  _ thing _ out of her at whatever cost.” 

“Over my ashes,” she hissed. 

“That can be arranged.” 

“Ed,” Emmett warned and he rested a protective hand in Rosalie’s lap. It looked like he was keeping her in her seat. 

Bella looked stricken. “No! You can’t mean that! Carlisle, you wouldn’t, would you-?” 

“He would,” came Alice’s quiet voice. “He will. We’ve seen how our family falls apart when you are dead, Bella. If you die, Edward dies, and there is no recovering from that.” 

“You can’t mean that, Carlisle!” Emmett argued, looking between Alice and Edward and Carlisle. “No! That’s not right!” 

Jasper looked over at Emmett and Rosalie with remorse in his dark eyes. “There’s only two of you between us and the fetus. It’s not a fight you’ll win.” 

The wind was knocked from Emmett’s sails as he and Jasper shared a long look. How many hearts would be broken if it came to a fight? If it came to Carlisle ripping through Bella with his teeth and destroying the life inside of her? 

“Try me!” Rosalie’s hiss was loud and Bella jumped. 

“Please, no!” she cried out, and then suddenly she was leaning forward in pain and Rosalie’s hand stroked her back. 

“What is it?” Edward asked anxiously. He was out of his seat and kneeling at her side in an instant. “What hurts?” 

“Nothing,” she lied and she forced herself to smile. “I’m fine. He’s just moving.” 

“It’s hurting you,” Edward groaned. He sounded like he wanted to cry. “Please let us take it out, please.” 

“It’s alright,” she soothed, stroking his bronze hair. “It’ll be alright.” 

“No it won’t. Carlisle doesn’t know how to keep you alive when it gets worse.” 

“It might not get worse.”

“It already has,” Jasper said. “I can feel your pain, Bella. It gets worse every day. Every hour.” 

She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. “I won’t do what you want me to do. You can’t make me.” 

Carlisle’s face was a picture of misery. “If Edward asks me to, I will do it for him. I’m sorry, Bella.” 

Rosalie tensed as if to spring in front of her at those words, and for the first time, Bella looked afraid of Carlisle. Her heartbeat began racing, her breathing coming more uneasily, and Rosalie pulled her close to her. “Breathe, Bella, nice and steady now. You’re alright, it’s alright.” 

After a long silence, Bella could not fight her tears. “You won’t,” she cried softly, her eyes large and red and fixed on him. “Carlisle, please…” 

Esme could stand it no longer. Her silence had been too loud. “He won’t.” 

All eyes were suddenly on her. She found her daughter’s brown, human eyes, and smiled softly. “You have nothing to fear, my darling, no one will harm you or the life inside you.” 

At Bella’s side, Edward looked over at his mother with betrayal in his eyes. “You don’t get to decide that, Esme.” 

“None of us get to decide but Bella.” Her voice was unusually hard. “Edward, you and I, of all people, understand the need to control one’s own life and death. We both tried to end our lives and were permitted the freedom to do so. Bella only asks for that same right to bring new life into the world. You will give what is owed to her.” 

Jasper looked at the woman he loved as a mother, and there was fire in his eyes. “Esme, I don’t want to fight you, but if you stand in our way-” 

“Only Carlisle can perform the procedure.” She looked down the long table at him and it felt like miles. Something felt like it was closing around her throat and she swallowed thickly. “Will you go against your own most sacred value, Carlisle?  _ Do no harm? _ What harm would this do to Bella?” 

“I…” 

“If you try to do this, I will stand in your way.” 

Silence fell again. 

Esme and Carlisle rarely argued. When they did argue, it was never like this. This felt like life and death. For her, it was. The weight of it hung heavy over the room.

Then, with Rosalie’s gentle hand helping her, Bella scraped her chair on the floor as she got up. Her belly wasn’t huge yet, but there was enough weight to it that it made her wobble as she walked. She passed Rosalie and Emmett and stood before Esme. The two women looked at each other, before Bella’s warm arms wrapped around her new mother. Ever so carefully, Esme returned her embrace and kissed her dark hair. 

“Thank you,” Bella said, her voice muffled as she buried her face into Esme’s shoulder. 

“I’m so sorry I didn’t speak sooner.” 

“‘S’alright.” 

“We’ll look after you. Forget what Carlisle said, he won’t do what Edward wants him to.” 

“I don’t remember him saying that,” Alice interrupted. Bella and Esme’s hug broke and they both looked at her. She looked angry. “I only heard Esme say she would stand in his way.” 

“Don’t be so dense,” Rosalie retorted. “I know you’re blind right now, but you don’t need a sixth sense to know he won’t fight her.” 

“You don’t have to do this,” Bella whispered, Esme’s arm still around her waist. 

Esme smiled sadly. “Yes, I do. What they threaten to do is monstrous.” 

“Monstrous?” Edward echoed, his voice getting louder. _“Monstrous?_ To want to keep her  _ ALIVE?”  _

“I won’t die!” Bella protested again. 

“We don’t know that!” Alice was frustrated. 

“I think the conversation is over,” Esme said kindly, ignoring her family behind her. She turned her attention completely to Bella. “Would you like any help back to the living room?” 

Glancing back at the family, Bella looked apprehensive and protestations did not stop, but she blinked and looked back at Esme and returned her smile. “I can manage. But come with me?” She looked over at Rosalie. “Rose, you’ll come too?” 

It took less than a second for Rosalie to be on her other side and together the three women made their way at Bella’s pace to the living room where she plopped herself onto one of the big white sofas. Back in the dining room, they could hear Edward and Alice talking in urgent whispers to Carlisle. Emmett came out to sit on the sofa at Bella’s feet while Rosalie sat on the floor in front of her and Bella absent-mindedly began stroking her hair. Esme perched on the coffee table in front of them. 

“How are you feeling, my darling?” she asked. 

Bella winced and glanced at the dining room door. “I’m not sure. I guess I asked for it, really, but I didn’t realise how far Edward was willing to go. And Carlisle.” She shivered. 

There was a pang in Esme’s heart. “He’d do anything for Edward. I don’t think he really understood the gravity of what he promised, and what it would mean to you. I’m sorry for that.” 

“It’s not your fault.” 

“I should have spoken sooner. You deserved another voice on your side.” 

“It’s fine, Esme, honestly. I’m just… I’m sorry if this is difficult for you, in a different way than the others.” Her cheeks turned a faint red and she stroked one hand over her belly. 

“It’s only difficult to see you in pain,” Esme assured her gently. “If our hopes are fulfilled and you do carry a happy, healthy baby, it will be the greatest blessing to us all.” 

In the corner of her eye, Esme saw Carlisle appear in the doorway but she ignored him. He watched her, and she fought to not look at him. 

“Thank you, Esme.” There was sincerity in the young woman’s voice, and she smiled when Esme kissed her forehead. “I don’t want to be a pain, but would you be able to get me some water? I’ve just got comfortable.” 

Emmett chuckled. “Already got Esme running around for you? Beats me having to do it. Tough break, Ma.” 

Bella kicked his leg gently and Esme shook her head. “Of course. You stay there.” 

She moved at a human pace to the open kitchen and reached into the fridge to get a bottle of water for Bella. A whoosh of air washed over her and when she closed the door, Carlisle was stood there. They were close together, but it still felt like miles. “Why won’t you look at me?” 

As if to make a point, she faced him straight on and didn’t blink. 

“Could we talk alone?” 

She nodded once. “Now?” 

“Yes, please.” 

As if she had all the time in the world, Esme drifted back to Bella and handed her the bottle, and kissed her head. Passing by the back of the sofa, Emmett held out his hand and she squeezed it before following Carlisle out of the front door. 

They set off at a run and headed south, bounding over the rushing river and into the forest. She picked up her trail to the cottage from earlier but they ignored it and ran in silence for miles. Four miles, five miles, but only a minute passed. They stopped in a small clearing in the foothills of one of the looming mountains that littered the Olympic Peninsula. 

“Did you mean it?” 

Esme kept a distance between herself and Carlisle and there was a pain in her heart to do it. “Yes.” 

“She might die.” 

“Yes, she might. But what you threatened to do, Carlisle, is far worse. Can’t you see that?” 

“I only want to keep her safe from harm-” 

“But you’re blind to the harm that would cause!” Esme exploded. “Why can’t you see that? You threatened to overpower her and put her under, and rip what she believes is her child from her womb! She trusts you completely and you are abusing that trust and violating her, body and soul!” 

“To keep her alive,” he said weakly. 

“She might not die! How badly broken was my body when your venom saved me? It worked miracles! If the worst should happen, it could do the same for her!” 

“I… I can’t take that risk.” 

“It’s not your risk to take!” 

“The whole family would be affected, whatever is inside her might threaten us all.” 

“It’s not a family worth protecting if it would take away Bella’s God-given right to her own body! This isn’t  _ you, _ Carlisle! Why are you even entertaining this idea?”

He pressed his hands into his eyes and paced furiously. He wasn’t angry at her, or himself, or Edward or Bella or anyone. Perhaps he was angry at Fate itself. “Because I can’t lose him! We can’t!” He came to a stop and threw his hands up in the air. “We’ve lost him twice, Esme. I can’t… I can’t do it again.” 

She felt his pain as if it were her own and it winded her, and almost threw her off course. She went to him and took his face into her hands. He needed to hear this. “If you terminate her pregnancy, the pain you and I felt when we lost Edward will be put onto her every day for the rest of her life. There will be no relenting of that agony. And if you take away what she thinks is her child, she may die anyway. I lost my baby and I killed myself to escape the pain.  _ That’s  _ what you’ll do to her. But it will be worse because it was you who’ll do that to her, and she will never forgive you. Neither will I.” 

“Esme…” He was torn up inside, she could see it behind his eyes. 

“I mean it. If you take away her choice and force this upon her, it will break my heart.” 

“What if she dies?” he whispered helplessly. 

Esme shook her head, the lump in her throat rising. “She won’t. We’ll do everything to keep her alive and happy.” 

“But what if she does?” 

“No. That is not a possibility. That won’t happen, not with you by her side. You can do this, Carlisle. You’re a good man.”

His voice was nothing more than a breath. “I’m frightened.” 

“I know. But you can do this, Carlisle.” 

“Please don’t leave me,” he begged softly. “I can’t… I can’t do this without you. Come back to me, Esme.” 

When he choked on a sob, Esme could not hold back. She wrapped her arms around Carlisle and he buried his face into her silk hair, clutching onto her, his anchor in the storm. She stroked his back and held him tight and soothed him. 

The distance between them was gone. She had spoken, and he had listened, and they would walk the right path together, though the future was unknown and the task ahead almighty. 

They ran back to the house hand in hand. Landing on the north bank close to the home, they saw Edward stood on the porch. 

“Why are you doing this to me?” he asked quietly. 

“It’s the right thing to do,” Carlisle answered. He was trembling. “I will respect Bella’s wishes. We all will, to whatever end.” 

“You’re killing her.” 

“No, my darling, we aren’t,” Esme replied, as kind as she could be. “She’ll live. Forever.”

“You’re wrong. Both of you.” 

Edward flitted back inside and Carlisle leaned against for support. “Thank you. For bringing me back to myself.” 

She squeezed his hand. “Always.” 


End file.
